Crow Market

Today, "Zorro" looked completely different from the thief he had seen that day.

A gentleman's hat was pulled low, almost covering his nose, with only a few strands of deep blue hair visible at the edges. His understated yet luxurious attire spoke of a refined noble.

However, what this fellow was doing today was completely out of sync with his fine clothes. After deviating from Gabreid's bustling main road, he kept heading into the secluded alleys.

If Evan hadn't seen the guy hurrying along without looking back, he would have thought he had been discovered and was circling around to evade pursuit.

"What a mysterious fellow."

However, as a precaution, Evan kept a little further away, just far enough to keep him in sight.

After walking through five or six narrow alleys that were too small for carriages, Evan finally saw him stop in front of an abandoned courtyard.

Although the location was remote and the building was old, the place was actually quite large.

Judging from the mottled and broken decorations, this place used to be prime real estate in the old city, but now it had been abandoned for many years, and even various shrubs had grown.

Standing at the entrance of the deserted house.

"Zorro" took out a black hooded cloak from his small bag, put it on, and then walked straight through the locked wrought iron gate.

With a ripple of water, the whole person disappeared without a trace, and the gate, which looked like it had weathered many storms, seemed to not exist at all.

"Wizardry? Illusion?"

Evan came out of his hiding place in the distance and carefully observed.

It wasn't until he got closer that his active mental power captured the residual wizardry aura in the air.

A solidified permanent wizardry spell had been cast here!

In fact, this place was only meant to shield ordinary people, but for extraordinary people, especially those with activated mental powers, it was as conspicuous as a beacon within a five-meter radius.

No wonder this guy didn't have much awareness of being followed along the way. It turned out that this place was a semi-public place, and anyone who could find it could enter.

Moreover, after reading Leon's notes, Evan, who was no longer a complete novice, had a guess as to what this place was.

"Good luck, a pillow just when I was getting sleepy."

Evan was glad that he wasn't wearing his military uniform today, but rather a hooded casual outfit. When he pulled down the hood, others could only see his chin.

Perfect!

Then he walked straight in, as if passing through a layer of flowing water, and the bustling sounds instantly filled his ears.

"How much..."

"Too expensive, and the side effects are too great..."

"Don't touch it if you're not buying."

Various stalls and shops, and the crowds of people, instantly gave Evan the feeling of being in a bustling market.

It's just that this market was a little different from others.

The mysteriously dressed buyers and sellers, the deliberately lowered voices, the overall dark decorations, the strange and even creepy goods on the stalls, and the strange smell everywhere, all indicated the weirdness of this place.

In fact, this is indeed a market, but not a market for ordinary people, but the "Crow Market" that only serves extraordinary people!

Leon's notes contained records of the Crow Market; he himself was a regular, active as a seller. Although the times and locations are different, the essence is similar.

If Evan were to compare it to something mundane, it would be like the "ghost markets" of his previous life, gathering at sunset and dispersing at sunrise, with no guarantees for anything bought or sold after closing.

Evan felt that this Mr. "Zorro" was simply his lucky star, providing a pillow when he was dozing off. First, he "gifted" him Leon's notes, and now he "gifts" him a Crow Market. What a great guy.

Evan couldn't help but suspect that this guy must also be a wizard; otherwise, there was no reasonable explanation for his bizarre behavior.

Nobleman, thief, peak Apprentice Knight, Wizard Apprentice—with so many identities, Evan became increasingly interested in Mr. "Zorro's" secrets.

Although it was a bit strange.

Why could this kind of existence, clearly a key target for the Church and the Kingdom, appear openly in an important city like Gabreid? But Evan was never one to dig to the bottom of things, and the deeper reasons were not something a newbie who had just entered the extraordinary world should explore.

After retaining some caution, he formally entered the market.

Entering the Crow Market for the first time, filled with a sense of novelty, he ignored where "Zorro" had gone, joined the crowd, and wandered around on his own.

"How much for these Clever Tongue Grass?"

Squatting in front of a herb stall, Evan pointed to a bundle of herbs on the stall with leaves that looked like sparrow tongues, asking the stall owner in a deliberately lowered and disguised voice.

Clever Tongue Grass was the main ingredient for the "Birdsong Potion," one of the three self-created magic potions recorded in Leon's notes. Although it wasn't a rare herb, he couldn't pass it up when he encountered it here.

Originally, he was worried that frequently buying strange herbs would attract attention and wanted to avoid the limelight for a while. But in the Crow Market, where everyone hid their identities, this concern disappeared. Once out of the Crow Market, he could take off his hood, and no one would recognize him.

"Twenty stalks in total, two Gold Lions and you can take them all," the stall owner, also with his head covered in a black hood, didn't even look up, his cold, hard voice coming from the shadows under the hood.

Evan didn't mind the stall owner's attitude. Most stall owners he'd encountered along the way had this kind of take-it-or-leave-it attitude. If they were outside, their business would have failed long ago, but here it was the norm.

"Two Silver Bulls!" Evan stated his expected price indifferently, cutting the price by two-thirds.

The stall owner looked up at Evan.

At least Evan felt two cold gazes from behind his hood, and after a moment, he said, "Take them."

Still indifferent.

"I still quoted too high!" Although Evan had tried to overestimate the black-heartedness of the Crow Market, judging by the stall owner's attitude, the price he quoted still exceeded the stall owner's bottom line by quite a bit.

But he wasn't discouraged. What one gains on paper is always shallow; Leon's notes only recorded his own experiences.

Moreover, a hundred years had passed. If he remained confined to the knowledge recorded by Leon, he would suffer even greater losses later on.

Afterward, Evan went through every stall. Besides some herbs he was somewhat familiar with, he bought a few scattered ones, but he didn't touch any of the other strange-looking things.

In the "Crow Market," having a good eye is very important.

At most, you'd lose some money if you were fooled in the antique market, but buying strange things of unknown origin here could be fatal!

This was also why Evan didn't dare to collect the spoils of war when he encountered strange enemies in the past. Blood Anchor Zack and the native witch doctor Gagon were both examples of this.